Mixing room · Cleaning
One tank for both systems ruins the gun, the cleaning fluid and the machine. Here is why.
The question usually comes in the form "can't we just wash everything in the same cabinet?". The answer is no, never — and it is not a formality or a warranty clause. It is chemistry. Water and solvent do not mix, and when paint residues from the two systems meet, four things happen, none of them good.
When paint residues and cleaning fluids from the two systems meet, the binders often react by coagulating. A sticky, chewing-gum-like mass forms.
That mass quickly clogs the spray gun's fine paint and air channels. It rarely flushes out. In practice this means the gun has to be dismantled completely and cleaned mechanically — and a spray gun is not a tool you take apart in a moment halfway through a job.
The two fluids dissolve different things. A solventborne thinner has little effect on dried waterborne paint, and waterborne cleaning fluid cannot cope with solventborne paint. On their own they work; together neither of them does.
Mix them in the same tank and the cleaning fluid is ruined instantly. The thinner loses its cleaning power once it becomes saturated with water, and the water system is fouled with chemicals it cannot break down or separate — the flocculation simply stops working.
Cleaning equipment intended solely for solvent is not always built in stainless steel — solvent causes no rust, so there is no need for it. If water ends up in such a system it starts to rust from the inside.
In the other direction the problem is the seals. A washer built for waterborne work may have O-rings in materials that cannot withstand aggressive solvents. The result is leakage, and it is usually discovered only once it has already run.
Solvent and waterborne paint waste are two separate types of hazardous waste with entirely different requirements for handling and disposal. Keep them apart and you have two clean waste streams that are easy to hand over.
Mix them and you have instead created a contaminated mixed waste that is both harder and considerably more expensive to get rid of. It is a cost that does not show up until the invoice arrives.
If you work with both systems you have two routes. Either two separate cabinets — one for solventborne, one for waterborne. Or Systemtvätt 195, which is built to handle both but keeps them apart: automatic thinner wash, manual water wash and sink, each with its own place in the cabinet.
Clean 100 and Kombi work excellently for one system or the other — but only one at a time. It is not a limitation in the design; it is a consequence of the chemistry above.
If you are unsure which set-up suits your workshop, get in touch. It is one of the most common questions we get, and it is easier to answer when we know which materials you actually run.
